Letter: MA State Building Codes — Shower Glass

To the editor:

This is a followup to my previous letter "Building Codes Put Homeowners in the Middle." Believe it or not, we are still working on this issue!

Ryan Contenta, Williamstown building inspector, continues to withhold a Certificate of Occupancy, taking a stand against shower glass. We need an amendment to our state law that allows for an affidavit or detailed stickers to be used in lieu of etching, which involves use of a toxic chemical. It's also difficult to clearly stamp all of these lines of code.

Over-Regulated Mass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kpjka5y7Hs

Todd Fiorentino
Williamstown, Mass.

BHS' New North County Urgent Care Center Opens Tuesday

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
05:44PM / Monday, December 15, 2025

There is a waiting area and reception desk to the right of the Williamstown Medical entrance. 

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Staff and contractors were completing the final touches on Monday to prepare for the opening of Berkshire Health System's new urgent care center. 

 

Robert Shearer, administrative director of urgent care, said the work would be done in time for Berkshire Health Urgent Care North to open Tuesday at 11 a.m. in a wing of Williamstown Medical on Adams Road.  

 

The urgent care center will occupy a suite of rooms off the right side of the entry, with two treatment rooms, offices, amenities, and X-ray room. 

 

"This is a test of the need in the community, the want in the community, to see just how much we need," said Shearer. "One thing that I think Berkshire Health Systems has always been really good at is kind of gauging the need and growing based on what the community tells us. 

 

"And so if we on day one and two and three, find that we're filling this up and maybe exceeding the capacity of the two exam rooms and one provider, then we look to expand it."

 

Hours will be weekdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and weekends from 8 to noon, but the expectation is that the center will "expand those hours pretty quick."

 

BHS has two urgent care centers in Lenox and in Pittsfield. The health system had tried a walk-in center at Williamstown nearly a decade ago but shuttered over low volume of patients.